


Wintermute

by NonbinaryHylian (chicagoartnerd)



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007), Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Body Modification, Canon-Typical Violence, Cybernetics, Cyberpunk, Energy Field Sexual Interfacing, Excessive Swearing, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Improvised Sex Toys, Interspecies Relationship(s), Mild Gore, Outliers - Freeform, Past Violence, Revolutionaries In Love, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, Xeno
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 15:44:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19112761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicagoartnerd/pseuds/NonbinaryHylian
Summary: Soundwave crash lands on an Earth plagued by corporations and ecological disaster slowly choking out the remaining population who have turned to cybernetic enhancements to survive. Your typical cyberpunk dystopia.He wasn't expecting to meet Verity Carlo and fall for the prickly, squishy little insurgent.But then again what's one more bloody people's rights revolution between friends?





	Wintermute

**Author's Note:**

> *Me shoving every cyberpunk continuity thing I could think of into this one fic and slapping it* 
> 
> THIS BABY CAN FIT SO MANY SNOWCRASH/BLADERUNNER/NEUROMANCER REFERENCES WOOBOY.
> 
> Also gonna shout out Cyberpunk 2020, Altered Carbon, and Detroit Become Human lol. And of course multiple Transformers continuities as this fic takes place in Detroit in the shadow of Sumdac System's tower. Enjoy this thing that no one asked for. Seriously I can't help but write rarepairs no one else seems to have thought of in situations with fun world building. 
> 
> Also I hath claimed another ship tag that hasn't existed before I've used it. I keep them like trophies you guys.

The dull black body of water approached too quickly. His thrusters were at 34% load bearing capacity as he attempted to slow his decent within acceptable parameters of survival. Impact was, unfortunately, imminent.

Soundwave crashed feet-first into the lake like it was a solid wall of rock.

His HUD informed him he had taken massive structural damage to both his knee and ankle struts. The pain also informed him that he had ruptured multiple energon lines in his extremities. Pain was something he needed right now. It was useful, up to a point, it helped him remain lucid. Up to a very fine point.

Soundwave's HUD was informing him that the damage to his legs was extensive and he would be forced into stasis lock soon if he didn’t mitigate some of the pain signals immediately. That was unacceptable. He needed to be conscious in order to repair some of his injuries and figure out where exactly he was. Once he had succeeded with those tasks it would be easy to leave this unfamiliar planet.

He sank deeper into the murky water as he consciously warred with his own self preservation systems. He had released Buzzsaw and Laserbeak in the lower atmosphere once it became apparent his descent would result in a possibly fatal crash. Ravage had refused to leave his chest and Soundwave hadn’t had the time or energy to force him to eject. As they both drifted down through the surprisingly thick liquid he felt his worry and concern through their sparkbond, he was unharmed it seemed. Which honestly was a relief. Soundwave tried to send back something suitably soothing to him but he knew it was garbled by his own pain. Not good.

Ravage chose that moment to eject. Soundwave couldn’t fight him back inside and maintain his own systems at the same time. He felt him grab his undamaged arm in his jaws and pull, the dull red light of thrusters igniting the water around him a bright purple in the oily liquid. His optics flickered behind his cracked red visor. His internal comms appeared to have shut down in order to reroute energy to his life support systems. Soundwave could only watch mutely as Ravage dragged him through the water, forward into the warm, wet, darkness.

He wasn’t aware of the moment he had offlined his optics which was disturbing. His self repair systems were in critical mode and his HUD flared an angry red as he awoke to Ravage and Laserbeak arguing.

“We need to stay here! He’s in no condition to move.”

Laserbeak shot back, her voice an angry trill compared to Ravage’s hissing baritone. “And in order for his self repair systems to get him back to functional parameters he needs energon! We all do! Buzzsaw has located a source and-”

Ravage snarled, cutting her off. “An organic source! We can’t trust anyone or anything on this entire blighted rock. Just because Buzzsaw thinks he’s found a friend doesn’t mean they won’t turn on him the first chance they get, especially when they scent weakness. And in case you haven’t noticed we are not coming to this planet from a position of strength.”

Laserbeak huffed and was about to retort when her red optics flashed over at him. She had noticed he was awake. “Soundwave! Systems report: Status?”

Soundwave ex-vented and then immediately regretted it. All the vents on his sides and back were crushed in. He twitched in agony and Laserbeak and Ravage both hurried over to him.

His vocalizer still worked, though it was laced with static. “Status: critical. Massive structural damage, major energon line hemorrhages, internal comms power rerouted to life support systems, functionality 12%. Mission report: Status of Laserbeak, Ravage, and Buzzsaw?”

Both of their red optics flashed at him in panic, their EM fields flaring around him wildly.

Ravage spoke first, it was strained. “We are all fine. I remained here making sure you didn’t die on all of us and Buzzsaw and Laserbeak have been doing reconnaissance. We appear to be on a technologically nascent planet, most creatures here are organic, although there do appear to be some techno-organic hybrids. They have developed rudimentary space travel and have several colonies on other planets in this solar system. Their weaponry is paltry compared to ours. They seem to speak multiple languages across many landmasses, though there is a universal shared one similar to Neo-Cybex. Laserbeak has been scouring their intranet for cultural data while Buzzsaw has been scouting out possible ore and energon deposits.”

Laserbeak jumped in at this point. “Buzzsaw has made contact with a corporation here called Tessier-Ashpool and they have offered him energon in exchange for information about Cybertron and Cybertronians. We were just debating whether or not it was a worthy exchange to make but since you are awake now it’s up to you what course of action we take.”

Ravage huffed in annoyance as Soundwave responded tiredly. “Statement: More data required. Laserbeak prepare a dossier on this planet and the corporation Buzzsaw has contacted. Ravage, I am stable even though most systems are still red. Your energy would be better served scouting possible resources and means of escape. Query: Where exactly are we?”

It was just then Soundwave noticed their surroundings. He was slumped up against a wall of corrugated metal, the ceiling of the building was several meters above his head and made from the same dark metal material. The floor appeared to be some sort of smooth rock, not natural but constucted. It was dark and quiet except for the far away sound of water hitting the shore.

He didn’t try to extend his sensor range as his systems were already overtaxed with just keeping him awake.

Laserbeak answered primly. “I can send you a compressed data packet once your comms systems are functional but the short answer is Earth. The longer answer is an abandoned warehouse dockside of Lake St. Clair in Detroit. A mid-sized city in the United Corporations of America territory.”

Soundwave mulled that over, a lot of what she had just said lacked context but he would have to figure it out, and quickly. Especially if he needed to decide whether or not to deal with the organics on this planet.

He nodded at her. “Inadequate information. Please explain this planet’s systems further out loud to me Laserbeak. Ravage, locate suitable altmode schematics, there is a 92% likelihood we will be trapped here for long enough to require their use.”

Ravage’s optics flickered uneasily though he nodded and disappeared into the shadows of the warehouse. Laserbeak started to quickly break down the politics, culture, and resources of the planet for him. To his dismay he wasn’t able to stay out of recharge for her whole explanation. Her optics softened as she noticed the fatigue in his dull cracked visor.

 

* * *

 

 

When he awoke again it was to several muffled pops that sounded eerily like blaster fire. His HUD still flashed a warning soaked red as he onlinned.

Soundwave noticed immediately that he wasn’t alone. Several organics had entered the warehouse. His combat systems were not functional and he could barely move. If they wished him harm it would be disgustingly easy for them to inflict it.

Instead they seemed not to have noticed him as they were shooting concentrated energy weapons at each other. Several appeared to allies as they clumped together by the side door to the warehouse and shot at a singular figure hiding behind the large hanger style front doors of the building. The organic there returned fire, smoothly transforming away their hand to reveal a blaster. He watched them with keen interest now.

Laserbeak had mentioned some organics here had rudimentary cybernetic parts yet that blaster transformation had been efficient looking, seamless. They downed two of the organics at the side door before ducking out back around the front. There were more shots before they returned through the front door, chased by three new organics. They all raised their blasters as they surrounded them in the center of the warehouse floor.

“Drop the data drive and we won’t shoot your filthy arm off yah damn cypher.”

The outnumbered organic made a derisive noise using their nasal passages. “Please. You Nightbird goons couldn’t hit the side of the barn with olscecing optics. And besides, I don’t need a damn gun to take you down.”

There was no warning as the organic’s EM field crackled to life, sharp and dangerous like razor wire. Soundwave stifled a noise of surprise. None of the organic’s fields had been noticeable before now. He had assumed they didn’t have much of one, or had only novice level control over them. That seemed to have been a grave miscalculation on his part and on the part of the other three organics.

He reached out momentarily with his telepathy to try and touch the mind of this organic with a powerful EM field and his own mind slid off theirs like condensation on glass. It was like meeting a flat black monolith in the middle of an otherwise deserted space. He couldn’t see or even feel their mind. It wasn’t not there so much as just inscrutable to him.

Soundwave quickly tried it on the other three organics and caught their thoughts easily. They were panicking. As well they should be, he mused as his mind once again turned to the other organic as they lashed out violently at three with their EM field. He had heard of Cybertronians very rarely being able to weaponize their electromagnetic fields to devastating effect. He used his own field to stealthily glean feelings, motivations, and surface thoughts. But if his EM field was a scalpel then this organic’s was a fusion cannon. He watched entranced as they slammed it into their opponents in a devastating pulse wave.

The first thing to go was the guns, which sizzled out dully in their hands. Then all of them seized and fell to the floor, some sort of liquid oozing from their optics and mouths. It appeared he was looking at an organic with abilities on par with some of the Decepticon’s outlier soldiers. Tarn, grimly, came to mind.

Soundwave couldn’t look away as their EM field disappeared, almost as if it had never been there. He tried to focus his sensors on them but with how damaged they were he couldn’t pick up any signal. The organic shook themselves after downing those three and finally looked behind themself.

They saw him and immediately their field sprang up protectively around them, a buzzing wall of fierce static. “What the fuck is that supposed to be, a jaeger?”

Soundwave was not familiar with the term, though he was curious to look it up with Laserbeak later. He once again wished his comms were working. He watched the organic’s field expand ominously closer to where he was slumped against the wall.

He spoke uncharacteristically without meaning to. “Statement: There is no need to advance on me with your electromagnetic field like that, I mean you no harm.”

The organic’s field wavered and then snapped back around them, right up against their skin. Just like how his own plating protected his protoform. They looked at him suspiciously before engaging some sort external HUD, it glowed blue over their eyes. They were still watching him warily though.

“You’re not top secret Sumdac Systems or Blackrock Industries tech, I know because I’m in their databases right now. Does that make you a Nightbird tech then, that would explain the welcoming party? Lets see if I can find it, there! Nope not them either. Hm. Foreign development maybe, you’re definitely military grade though? That’ll take too long for me to suss out. Why don’t you just tell me where you’re from and why the fuck you look like an absolute shit pile right now.”

Laserbeak had explained that the entire planet was broken down into fiefdoms ruled by various mega corporations. The ones the organic had just listed were all advanced cybernetics and weapons companies. Soundwave found himself fascinated by them and their unexpected abilities, and he saw no tactical reason not to try and win them over to his side.

He shook his head slightly. “Fact: I’m not from any corporation here or elsewhere. I am a forged Cybertronian, what you would call an alien, from another planet millions of light years away called Cybertron.”

That made her snap her glowing blue HUD off in shock. “Well fuck. That was...not what I was expecting. But I can’t say I don’t believe you. Your nuclear energy readings appear to be off the charts. Your body is running on some weird electromagnetic crap too. You appear to have advanced A.I. or true Turing Test based sentience just looking at your speech patterns. You’ve got a central energy mass in your chest that reads like a perpetually collapsing white dwarf star. If you do fall apart that’ll take out half of the Midwest and Eastern seaboard with you. Fucking hell don’t you dare die on me.”

Soundwave didn’t want to die but it was strangely comforting to know that this one weird organic would be upset if he did. Also they would be dead, along with half the country they currently resided in.

He shrugged. “Statement: I do not intend to die but my systems are badly damaged from my entry into your planet’s atmosphere and my crash into the lake. Fact: I require ore and energon to make the necessary repairs so that I am at least nominally functional. If you acquire resources for me I will assist you in future endeavors.”

Their dark brown optics flashed at that. They seemed to understand the favor for a favor system quite well. They held up their hand that didn’t turn into a blaster and addressed him quickly. “Alright. I’ll be right back I just need to, um, clean up a little around here first. When I get back you’re gonna explain exactly what you are and what you need from me even if you have to use gestures and like crappy stick drawings.”

With that they grabbed two of the offlined organics off the ground by their collar faring and dragged them out the side door. They were only gone a few minutes before silently returning for the third downed figure. After retrieving them they were gone for longer and when they finally returned they were slightly damp.

He had attempted to pinpoint their EM signature while they were out of the warehouse but either their field had disappeared again or his sensors were too broken to pick it up.

When they got within a couple meters of his sprawled form they stopped and crossed their arms over their chest. “Okay, let's do this right this time. I’m Verity Carlo, she/her/hers, hacker-cyberengineer-merc C class, freelancer currently unaffiliated, formerly Blackrock Industries.”

She then gestured at him expectantly. Verity Carlo had just given him her designation, pronouns, and loyalties. She expected his in return. He hummed slightly. “Designation: Soundwave, he/him/his, director of intelligence and spec-ops Decepticon army.”

That seemed to get her undivided attention. “Oh wow I’m talking to an alien spook. I mean what you just witnessed was some corporate espionage, but it was between friends. What the fuck am I supposed to do with a giant alien robot spy?”

She was talking like he wasn’t really there to listen and he let some of his voice modulation go in exasperation. “I asked for assistance but if you cannot or will not render it the most logical option would be to leave and forget your were here.”

Her small organic eyes danced dangerously and he felt more than saw her field strobe in a whispered threat. That might not have been the most logical course of action for her, even if it was the safest for him. This time Verity must have noticed he could see her EM field somehow as he had mentioned it before.

Verity's voice was lower when she took at step towards him. “Since you can see and feel it my guess is it’ll work even better on you than it did on those three chucklefucks, so don’t threaten me. I may be a freak but I’m a freak who knows how to use what she’s got.”

Soundwave tried to reassure her, releasing his own usually reserved field to brush up against her body. She froze for a second in terror and then released her own field to push his back in panicked shove.

He easily pulled his in close under his plating as she shouted up at him. “How’d’ the hell you do that?! Wait. No! Don’t fucking ever touch me with that again!!”

Soundwave tried to mirror her placating gesture from earlier but he could barely raise his good hand. “All Cybertonians have EM fields that we can manipulate with varying levels of control. I am good at using mine because I have practiced and because it is important to know how to so that I can control my outlier ability properly.”

She raised a brow at that but seemed to have relaxed slightly. “So what I can do is just a normal thing on your planet then? Also what’s an outlier?”

He hummed again thoughtfully before responding. “Statement: What you can do with your field is not normal amongst my people impressive though it is. An outlier is a Cybertronian who has special abilities that others of our kind do not possess. Example: I am a telepath, I can sense and read the thoughts and emotions of those around me. There are other kinds of outliers with different abilities as well. Such as levitation, pyrokinesis, incalculable speed, and super learning.”

She frowned. “So EPs like me. You’re a freak amongst your people too then huh?”

He didn’t know what that word meant or what the word before meant either. His translation software was working just fine she was just using an inordinate amount of slang and oaths. At least that’s what he could gather from the gaps in his understanding. Laserbeak’s translation packets were always comprehensive with slang but less so with swearing and colloquialisms. “What does that word mean? Cypher, the other organics called you that. Is that analogous to the word freak?”

She made that same disgusted noise as before. “It’s not a good thing. It’s a slur, for people like me. When the corps started messing around with cybernetic enhancements they added techno-organic code to the human genome to prevent rejection of the implants and some people developed abilities that were considered dangerous. We were branded abominations by society at large. I’m good at hiding mine for the most part but it still ostracised me from my original corps so that I had to become a neutral. I don’t know how much you know about this planet yet but being a neutral means everyone is out to get you, even other neutrals. I’ve got nobody watching my back.”

Soundwave did know something about that firsthand, it sounded sadly familiar. “History: Soundwave was forged under Functionism, there was no place in that society for an outlier and a cassette bearer. I was left to go mad and die alone in the streets. Ravage found me, trained me, raised me. Together we became information brokers who were eventually employed by the Senate. We hated the Senate and when the Decepticon movement was formed we joined it eagerly, using our position to subvert the Senate’s will and sabotage their efforts to destroy the movement. We destroyed the Senate and declared Cybertron free. It was not a lasting freedom. The Autobot movement rose to challenge us, to set things back to the ‘way they should have been.’ We have been fighting a 4 million year civil war ever since.”

Verity whistled loudly. “Wow after 4 million years you’re still fighting a revolution? That’s just kind of sad really. Does anyone even remember what you’re fighting for at this point?”

His visor flashed bright red through the spider web cracks. This was a sore subject and the whole reason for his crash to begin with. “I do. As long as even one Decepticon still believes in the cause then the war is never over. It is never lost.”

She rolled her eyes and waved her silvery mechanical hand at him. “You can take all that noble bullshit and shove it up your ass, well if you’ve got one. Hm tailpipe? Port maybe?”

Soundwave flinched at that and she laughed. “Oh you are going to have to teach me all the robot swears. But first things first, we have to make a deal.”

He raised a brow ridge at that but didn’t know if she could tell as she continued, stern and serious. “Nobody in the whole fucking universe is watching my back, and I’m not asking you to commit to anything, just while we work together protect my back and I’ll protect yours. Next, I’m gonna need everything you know about your people and your homeworld and any tech specs you can share. Hell, even just patching you up would prove to be enlightening. Which I would be willing to do if you told me what kind of parts and fuel you need.”

Soundwave’s audial caught viciously on the word ‘fuel.’ It was why they were even in this far off sector any way. He could promise not to attack her until they mutually parted ways. That seemed a fair enough trade for some fuel and repairs. As for the information about Cybertron he could tell her as much or as little truth as he felt like, as she would have no method to prove him wrong.

He nodded in agreement. “I will protect you and neither me nor my cassettes will harm you. In exchange you will provide fuel and help repair some of my damaged structures. As for Cybertron I would like it to be a cross cultural exchange. You tell me about your planet and I’ll tell you about mine.”

She smirked deviously up at him as she stuck out her hand. “Alright deal. I’ve made shadier contracts for less payout from way creepier men than you.”

He remembered this, Cybertronians spoke hand and handshakes were a thing. He could barely lift his non-crushed hand though. Instead he very tentatively released his field, not touching her, and pulsed it forward with friendly acceptance. She lashed out violently with her own but they didn’t make contact, instead she pulled back at the last minute, her whole body taught with anxiety.

He rumbled in what he hoped was a soothing manner. “We shake hands this way sometimes. EM fields meet and overlap slightly at the edges, it is a way to greet friends.”

She extended hers in a rush and they quickly overlaid it on top of his before she shuddered and withdrew. It was more like her smacking him and then running away than a handshake but at least she had tried. He kept his affectionate as he brought it back towards himself just in case she rushed out again. To his surprise he noticed her field disappear again.

Soundwave's voice was slightly modulated when he spoke. “Query: Would you like me to show you how to use your field in a more...gentle manner?”

She scoffed at him but her posture was stiff and leaning away from him. “No. Why the fuck would I want to do that? My field is a weapon. I don’t need to know how to play nice with others, I just need to know how to hurt.”

That...was an uncomfortable thing to hear. Most Cybertronians knew how to control their fields to some degree, though retracting it entirely was mostly a privacy concern or personal precaution. To hide your field completely, to deny yourself any electromagnetic comfort, was almost unheard of. To use your field to harm was more common. Mostly emotional manipulation and mental harm, but sometimes it could cause physical damage as well. Verity’s most certainly could. He understood why her’s was like that as well. He had been like her once after all.

Instead of answering her properly they were both interrupted by the enraged squawk of Laserbeak and Ravage materializing out of the shadows around his legs to growl at her in front of him. Her field snapped back out protectively around her, the many arms of it waving like electro-whips around her body. Verity was truly something to behold.

He was distracted from her display by Ravage growling up at him in Neo-Cybex instead of the Earth pigdig that Laserbeak had taught them to speak. “What should we do about the squishy boss? Its got a weaponized field, we could drop a bomb on it that it wouldn’t be able to deactivate or deflect.”

Laserbeak trilled it agreement as she circled over the upper limits of Verity’s field. He responded to Ravage in Standard Earth Dialect so that she could understand him. “Nothing. She is an ally now. You will accord her the same protections and respect you would give me.” The last part was code for ‘trust her about as far as you could throw her but don’t kill her.’ He then continued and addressed Verity. “Statement: These are my cassettes Ravage and Laserbeak, they will help you retrieve materials vital to my repairs and our collective refueling.”

She nodded warily and put away her field again, almost as if she was subspacing it to a completely other plane. Fascinating.

Ravage felt the interest in his closely gathered field and looked up at him stunned. Soundwave ignored him and began to describe to Verity what he needed her to bring to him. She pulled up her visible HUD again and started to take notes as well as offer translation corrections and suggestions. He found himself watching the blue biolights on the ends of her cybernetic fingers and she swished them expertly through the air, typing and writing off bits of information on her projected HUD. Ravage and Laserbeak watched uneasily from the sidelines until they had finally hammered out a plane together.

Verity waved goodbye sarcastically to all three of them before exiting out the front of the warehouse. He followed the flick of her metallic silver and blue tipped fingers as she did.  

Both Ravage and Laserbeak practically pounced on him after she was out of earshot. They were both nonsensically berating him for allying himself with a human but he was too tired to pay them much mind. All during that little encounter he had been trying to bring his combat suite back online to no avail and it had exhausted him. Also their meeting had been unexpectedly exciting, watching her fight had certainly been thrilling.

And her field! He’d never seen anything like it. Soundwave had no doubt that she could project it farther than he could and he almost shivered at the possibilities. An offensive EM field with the ability to offline bots instantly from great distances. That was the kind of weapon that could change the tide of a 4 million year war. Soundwave held onto that thought as he fell into a dreamless recharge.

 

* * *

 

 

When Soundwave jerked awake the next time the warning alarms in his HUD were a dull drone and the threat level of a permanent offline had inched slowly down to orange. He noticed that what had awoken him this time were all of his cassettes, all three that had come with him on this mission, yelling at Verity Carlo. She was of course yelling right back.

He caught the last bit of her shouting. “you’re the ones who said you needed Solar Voltaic fuel I only brought what you asked!”

Soundwave looked at the entrance of the warehouse where there were several carts on wheels covered in black tarps. It appeared she had held up her end of the bargain so far so he addressed his cassettes sternly. “Order: Operation Refuel Alpha. Cassettes return!”

They all looked up at him comically at the same time; Ravage in anger, Laserbeak in concern, and Buzzsaw in despair. After a beat of inaction they all three sullenly transformed and returned to his aching and cracked tape deck. But not before Ravage managed to mutter up at him.  “I hope for your sake you know what you’re doing.”

Verity was staring at his tape deck now in open fascination. “Okay I had no idea what you meant by your cassettes before but now I do and that was really fucking cool to watch. What do you transform into, a giant boom box?”

Soundwave rolled his optics behind his visor but kept his voice modulated. “A F-class space cruiser. It was how I got here. I was forced into root mode in my descent through the atmosphere due to a broken thruster though, otherwise I would have sustained much less damage.”

Verity looked thoughtful as she murmured. “Yeah you'd made a bigger crater but had come out in one piece.”

Soundwave dismissed it. “I landed in the lake so I would have made a bigger splash, rather than a crater.”

She laughed at that and it was a wonderfully full echoing sound. He was interested in hearing it again sometime. Laserbeak and Ravage both sent alarm to him through the cassette bond and he politely ignored them in favor of addressing Verity again. “The first system I need to get up and running again is my communication suite. I have been diverting energy from it to power my life support protocols. If you repair some damage in my legs and stop the ruptured energon lines from leaking I should be able to reroute the power without offlining.”

She stared up at him for a moment in shock and then turned away back to the first cart to go grab something. On her way back with a small black metal case she spoke slightly out of breath. “Walmart take the wheel! You’re practically on death’s doorstep right now aren’t you?! Why didn’t you say something before? Would you have even been able to repair yourself without me?”

He didn’t recognize half the colloquialisms yet so he shook his head. “Fact: Cassettes would have eventually acquired resources necessary to repair me. Fact: I would have lost critical functioning permanently in certain areas of my processor from multiple systems’ crashes before they did. I appreciate your timely assistance.”

She frowned and nodded as she got to work peeling back the mangled plating around his ankles with her cybernetic hand. “Does it hurt a lot? This looks really awful especially if this magenta stuff is your blood. It’s your blood isn’t it?”

She wrinkled up her nose and he sent a soothing calm wave of his field towards her. Not touching her but just hovering around the edges of where her’s would be if she had it extended from inside her body. Her hands froze in his wires after he did that and he pulled his field back away from her reluctantly. She silently began to work again to stop the hemorrhaging lines. The blue light of laser torch flickering across her concerned face.

He murmured down at her working on his right ankle. “It doesn’t hurt. I had to offline all my pain and motor sensors below my waist in order to remain functioning. And yes that is my ‘blood.’ It’s also energon. I consume it and my body pumps it through my systems in order to maintain motor function and homeostasis.”

She seemed to mull that over. “So let me get this straight, your species drinks blood in order to survive?”

It wasn’t quite like that, the energon didn’t belong to anyone before they drank it. There was a better way to explain it to the human. Water.

He shook his head again. “It’s like how your organic bodies are made of 95% water. Energon exists naturally in the universe, we consume it and it becomes a part of us, when we perish it returns to the universe. Much like your water cycle here on Earth.”

Verity snorted again, that’s what she had been doing earlier. His updated translation program supplied him with more relevant data from Laserbeak’s intranet deep dives. “We don’t have much of a water cycle anymore after Nestle privatized it. But yeah I hear you, you’re not vampires.”

After that she worked silently and efficiently patching as many holes as her small hands could find in his lines. She handily peeled back and cut away jagged broken pieces of him in order to make room for herself and for his lines to not get punctured again.

Verity was doing a good job. He truly wanted to send out his field in gratitude but he suspected she wouldn’t appreciate it so he refrained. Not only was she a warrior, one with a power he had never seen before, but also a healer. She had mentioned the first time he had met her that she was a cybernetics engineer of some sort.

Humanity’s tech might not be as advanced as his but she knew her way around cables and wires, she could probably adapt and learn his people’s frame specs if needed. Having a healer with him would be a boon if he was to return to the Decepticon fleet.

Bringing back a weapon in the form of Verity and a new source of energon would excuse any ill favor he was now under for disobeying direct orders in order to find this planet in the first place.

Yes, things appeared to finally be looking up.

He noticed she was fiddling with one of the main lines in his legs, not patching it but just kind of playing with it. In fact if he had been able to feel it the sensation would have been ticklish. So Soundwave shut off flow to the adjacent energon line and a bright spurt of it shot out and hit her directly in the face.

She sputtered angrily and then got her hands on the welder and soldered the line shut properly while yelling at him. “That was fucking digusting! You did that on purpose, didn't you? You absolutely glitched little bitmoji bitch!”

Verity angrily wiped her face to clear away some of the energon. And he couldn’t help but snicker, his vocalizer making little high pitched clicks. She knew exactly what that sound was though because she growled at him and got a cloth from somewhere in the black case to clean her face with. Verity scowled up at him for the rest of the patch job for both his ankles and he noticed immediately when she patched to last line. He was able to divert power to his comms again and move his good arm. The first thing he did was remove his shattered visor and drop it to the ground next to him.

She looked up at his face in shock. “Your eyes! You have another set, that wasn’t your only pair? Huh. What about that mask, do you have a mouth under there?”

He realized belatedly that she would probably be more likely to trust him if she could see his eyes and face. So even though he was more comfortably with them hidden he carefully transformed his battlemask away as well.

Her look changed from one of shock to bold fascination as she stared up at him. “Wow. Okay I was not expecting you to be so... oh what the hell, pretty, under there.”

His field fluttered a little uncontrollably at her sentiment and as it touched up against her boundaries she fell back from his leg. Verity stumbled to her feet and practically ran away from him to the cart closest to the door. He watched her dig under the tarp and then return back towards him hauling a metal cylinder the length of her arm and diameter of her midsection.

She grunted as she held it out for him with her silver and blue cybernetic arm. “It’s Solar Voltaic fuel. We use it to power long range vehicles and space flight. That shit isn’t cheap or easy to nick. Because of that I’m going to have to take a few more of the bigger, riskier, type jobs I usually avoid so you might not see me for a while. I trust you’ll be a bit better now that I fixed all those leaks though.”

He took it gratefully and with a shaking hand screwed off the top. He had been low on energon from flying through deep space for months, it was part the reason he had crashed through the atmosphere so ungracefully. Then all the crushed and leaking components in his legs hadn't helped with his low fuel levels. The light glow from the fuel danced a golden-rod yellow before his optics. She grinned at his awed expression, he hadn’t realized he’d been making one and blushed a little. His cheeks slightly energon pink.

Verity smiled even wider at that as she pointed at the fuel. “I know it’s not magenta so it’s probably not exactly what you’re used to but it has all the same chemical properties as energon. It’s funny, because of the color most folks call it Sunny-V. There’s two more containers of it under that tarp but don’t uh, go eating it all in one sitting. Like I said it’s hard to come by so I might be gone longer than expected.”

With that she started to move away towards the door. He rarely had a chance to feel gratitude so he let it suffuse his field, even if she couldn't feel it, and said quietly. “Thank you.”

She paused unsure at the door and then turned back towards him with a wide crooked grin before darting out into the unknown docs outside.

Now that his comms were up he sent a message to Laserbeak for all relevant intel including a layout of the surrounding buildings and area. He ejected all three of cassettes and they set to work planning their acquisition of Earth’s energon and a way off world with it. He sent Ravage and Buzzsaw out on a mission and kept Laserbeak by his side so she could teach him more about Earth and by proxy Verity.

They were still talking over comms later that night when Ravage burst through the front door, Verity draped limply over his back. Soundwave noticed, to his great alarm, that she was leaking something red. Blood. She had called it blood, and it was human’s energon. His panic rose as that realization hit him. Ravage padded towards him quickly sending an urgent comm.

**RV: She’s damaged. Other humans were pursuing her, I managed to lose them in the warrens. I don’t know if she’s been compromised or not but I brought her here because she insisted no medics.**

Verity stirred on his back and groaned and he instantly felt relief. She wasn’t offlined then. Ravage sat and gently rolled her off his back onto the floor next to Soundwave’s good arm. He sent him a nudge of gratitude through their bond and Ravage just rolled his red optics and started cleaning himself of Verity’s red fluids.

She looked up at his worried expression with unfocused eyes and sighed heavily. “Can you use the laser torch to heat up your fingers? Will that hurt you? How high temperature wise can you get it, I need it to kill the nerve endings in my arm. The shot they used was an old-fashioned metal bullet if you can believe it, luckily it was a through and through. Unluckily my chance for infection and bleeding out is now much higher. I need you to cauterize it like I did to all your leaks earlier. Though I need a flat hot surface to close it correctly instead of an open flame.”

He understood immediately what she wanted and pulled the laser torch from his subspace. “I can heat them to over 3,000 kelvin and I will not experience any structural damage. Pain is irrelevant as I can switch off the sensors for it in my hands.”

She laughed, it was concerningly choked. “Fuck I wish I could do that right about now.”

Verity then hissed in agony as she removed the outer covering she wore over her arm. He felt her field jolt and spike in thin needles of pain off her body as she fought hard to keep it close to her skin. He wanted to offer his field as a comforting weight for her right now but reluctantly refrained.

Instead he spoke quietly as he heated up his finger tips, his optics never leaving the gore covered red hole just below her left shoulder. “You can let it go. It is straining your systems to try and hold in your field like that. I can handle feeling it.”

She sat up heavily with a hiss of pain. Then held her trembling blood soaked arm away from her body while snarling at him through gritted teeth. “I could kill you. If I let it go, truly ever let it go, and I was in agony it would kill everyone within a three kilometer radius. You don’t want to ask me how I know that. So just shut the fuck up and do it.”

She watched him balefully as his optics widened and he visibly shivered. Not in fear or disgust as she probably suspected but in anticipation. All that power in such a small vessel. Oh what the Decepticons could do with her gifts. What he could do with them.

When his thumb and forefinger on his good hand were hot enough to cauterize organic flesh sterilely he held them out towards her for inspection. She nodded tersely and went rigid, no doubt trying to clamp down on her EM field. He did it quickly, pinching the front and back of her arm between his fingers as lightly as he could. Verity convulsed in a silent scream and he felt it pierce his spark in a hot bolt of torturous sympathy. He let go of her arm instantly and she slumped back onto the ground panting shallowly, her eyes glazed over in listless pain. He wasn’t sure what to do next.

Soundwave quickly cooled off his fingers and reached back down towards her prone form, not touching her. “Query: May I assist you? I know how to give basic comfort and pain relief through my field. If not is there some sort of medication you can take? I can get it for you.”

She closed her eyes heavily. “I’m fine. I took a shitton of pain killers in a booster pen before I even got here. As for the EM field fuckery, fine. Just...just be careful okay I don’t want to lash out at you in my sleep.”

He hesitated once more before reaching out with his field and then laying it over her like a heavy blanket of warmth. She whimpered and he pretended not to hear it. Soundwave sent as much comfort and healing warmth through it as he could and was happy when Ravage and Laserbeak both joined him in blanketing their fields comfortingly over her prone body. She gasped and opened her eyes to look blearily up at them, not comprehending what she was feeling.

He smiled forlornly down at her. There had been a time when he too had never been touched by another’s field gently. Very quietly he rumbled. “May I hold you against my chest? Just for the night. It will be easier to direct my field’s pulses into you.”

Recognition washed over her and he felt her field tentatively pulse out toward him. It was as jagged as ever but now it was full of cold claws pricked longing. She nodded, swallowing hard, as he picked her up as gently as he could and brought her to his chest. Both Ravage and Laserbeak came to them as well and nestled in under the arm he was holding her in. Their fields purred together in contentment as hers flared in alarm once before settling down in a low, anxious simmer.

He didn’t recharge well as he kept waking up to check on Verity. Each time he did she was thankfully fine. Warm, alive, and asleep in his arms, face pressed against the dented glass of his chest. He could feel Ravage’s red eyes watching him pensively up from his lap so he sent him an internal comm.

 _SW: She was injured on our behalf. To aid us. She deserves the best treatment we can give her right now._     

Ravage rolled his optics and huffed before responding over comms.

 **RV: You’re such a soft touch when it comes to abused, broken things. She’s just an organic though, nothing to worry too much over.**  

Soundwave stiffened at that and it seemed to worry Ravage even more as he responded.

_SW: She is not broken. Neither was I when you found me. I was lost, frayed, and without meaning. So is she. For now. We can give her meaning though. Verity Carlo is strong. If we show Lord Megatron her skills he would approve of her as well. Organic or not her field is a weapon the likes of which we rarely see. When we leave we will hopefully be taking her with us._

Ravage stared up at him with round red optics.

**RV: You’re serious? We will need to completely change our plans if we bring her along. Unless we can put her in stasis for the entire trip she will need to eat, and sleep, and ugh relieve herself. All things Cybertronian class ships aren’t built to allow organics to do. Even if we do get her back to fleet how long will she even last? 50, 60 years tops? Barely a blink of an eye for us.**

Soundwave grit his denta and nodded once decisively.

_SW: I will make the needed arrangements to bring her back with us. As for her lifespan I believe the humans are already capable of extending theirs into multiple centuries. She is part cybernetic, it seemed to have triggered her outlier powers actually, so in the future she might consent to a procedure to make her fully so. I believe our scientists would be capable of such a feat. Verity herself might even be able to manage it if we give her enough time and resources. That seems to be where she is limited here on Earth. The resources she is acquiring for us are difficult to come by, hence her damage on her last mission._

Ravage raised a brow ridge at that.

**RV: You’re talking about her like she’s one of us already.**

_SW: She is. Or she will be very soon. I cannot read her mind but based on all her previous actions the likelihood of her wishing to join us is in the 98th percentile._

Ravage hummed noncommittally and then closed his optics with a swish of his black tail.

**RV: She smells like deep tissue pain but you’re right she trusts you. Not sure how far but that is an easy enough scent to recognize. Why do you think you can’t read her thoughts though, is she jamming you?**

No it wasn’t a counterintelligence strategy, not that he could tell. Perhaps it was because of her outlier ability. Or maybe the organics had developed a technique for it. He would have to ask her once she had formally joined the Decepticons. He rumbled noncommittally before responding to Ravage.

_SW: I do not know. It might be another thing she had to offer the cause. I know you don’t like it when I bring someone else into our dynamic suddenly but I know she will be a great asset to our team._

Ravage made that same snorting noise Verity had before and responded with a sarcastic ping.

**RV: Yeah sure. Whatever you say boss.**

Soundwave didn’t like his tone.

He wasn’t about to argue with him though. Not now. He looked back down at her sleeping form cradled against him and sent a wave of affection and protective feelings towards her. Her field stirred a little in response, the ragged tendrils of it curled against his own like hard grasping fingers. They wanted more, were hungry for it.

Soundwave tried to recharge while keeping his field as calm as possible. He let his engine purr against her as well and that seemed to do it. Verity’s EM field curled back towards her body and hummed there, in tune with the low rumble of his engine.

He awoke to her tapping rhythmically against the glass of his cassette deck.

Verity grinned up at him, her eyes were still a little too watery for his liking. “Hey can you put me down? I’ve been awake for like an hour and I need to get going, the painkillers are gonna wear off soon.”

He immediately sprang into action and set her down carefully on her feet. She swayed a little but stayed standing, to his relief. He must have been projecting it in his field because she jumped a little and looked up at him sharply. Soundwave pulled his field back away from her like he had been burned.

She bent down slowly to retrieve her bloodied cloth covering and then hissed in pain as she put it back on. Verity made her way back towards the front double doors of the warehouse and he found he didn’t want her to go yet.

Soundwave called out to her. “Query: Why did you risk your life last night? Was there no other option than to do so for the task you were contracted to perform or-”

She cut him off, her eyes flat and black, boring into his red optics across the smooth gray warehouse floor. “I did it because I know what it’s like to be starving to death.”

His head snapped back as if she had slapped him. How had she known that was why they were here? Verity shook her head slowly and continued. “I might not be an expert on robot anatomy or anything but all of you have the look. That too thin, stretched too far, the hollowed out just on the edge of blackout tired look that only starvation can deliver. I’ve seen it on my own face and too many others so I know exactly what it looks like. Last night I was trying to get you some more Sunny-V. It didn’t go to plan. I’ll try again as soon as my arm is healed up. I promise. None of you will go hungry any more as long as I’m around to prevent it.”

He...still didn’t really understand it. The compassion. They were aliens, two very different species and yet....she saw it. Verity had seen why he had risked his life and the safety of his faction to come hunting ore and energon way out here in the middle of a small arm of this backwater spiral galaxy. He knew then he was right about her. About what she was.

There was no doubt now he had to bring her with them when they left. Soundwave would just have to try his best to convince her. Laserbeak and Ravage felt his solidifying conviction through their bond and sent back relatively supportive, if slightly judgemental, feelings. He was suddenly glad they approved. This would have been harder if they hadn’t.

Soudwave addressed her, trying to put as much feeling into it as possible without reaching out with his field. “Declaration: We are in your debt. Anything you need going forward we will try to provide. You have my word as a Decepticon.”

She made a strange blank face at him before smiling and shaking her head. “You’re probably gonna regret that promise Soundwave but I’ve seriously got to go before the chems wear off. We can talk about what I want your help with later.”

With that enigmatic sentence she left out the front door, gray light slipping past the door as she shut it.

 

* * *

 

 

He didn’t see her directly again for several weeks. Soundwave had Ravage keeping tabs on her of course and he reported back to him daily on her activities and status. Verity was meeting a lot of folks for blind drops and spending a great deal of time writing on her old fashioned HUD in her small dirty apartment in the city. According to Ravage her arm was healing, though it still looked tender and painful to the touch. He didn’t try to contact her even though he worried about her.

Soundwave knew he shouldn’t, she had proven more than capable of taking care of herself, yet she was still organic. Not a fragile organic but still mortal in a way that he and the cassettes were not. Buzzsaw was still contacting the human company he had originally to try and pump them for energon, or Solar Voltaic fluid. It was at a stalemate at the moment as he refused to reveal too much about Cybertron or their tech.

His own self repair systems were working wonders on all his shattered struts. He was conserving as much energon as possible but they were all slowly running out of it again. Towards the end of two weeks he was attempting to stand with the help of the wall. His ankles were still weak, the new silvery lines in the plating from were it had healed groaned slightly under the bulk of his weight.

Soundwave couldn’t wait though, he needed to rebuild his strength otherwise his cabling would weaken and he wouldn’t be able to stand at all. He did one lap around the full circumference of the warehouse, slightly winded, then slumped back down against the far wall. It was after he did that the door opened and Verity came in pushing another tarp covered cart.

She grinned at him mischievously. “I saw you stumbling around in here and didn’t want to interrupt. How’s the plotting going? Hopefully better than your walking skills.”

He smiled ruefully back and her and huffed. Soundwave had used a dent popper to fix his crushed vents after he had gotten back the use of both his hands and it had felt immensely satisfying to ex-vent without pain. “Status: We have acquired the correct components for a deep range transponder, refueled adequately, learned some more local slang, and my ankle plating has finally fully resealed. Hence the walking around. What about you? What have you been up to?”

She rolled her eyes but kept smiling. “Oh like you don’t know. I spotted your stalker cat the second day he was up in my apartment vents. We even had a very enlightening conversation about your bad habit of almost slagging yourself all the time for ‘the cause.’ He also taught me some Cybertronian swears and gave me the whole Decepticon recruitment spiel ‘you’re being deceived yadda yadda.’ And what the fuck? I knew that all already, everybody here knows that. What they don’t know is what they can do about it because before you showed up the answer was very little.”

That caught his interest. He motioned for her to continue. She pulled the tarp off the cart she had just pulled in with her cybernetic arm. Underneath were some more containers of Solar Voltaic fuel and something else. His scanners registered it as an explosive.

Soundwave’s eyes widened and Ravage curled around Verity’s hip protectively as he spoke. “Turns out your taste is still pretty good boss. You’ve found yourself another hellion revolutionary.”

She grinned triumphantly at his surprise and then the pleasure that he projected out openly into his field. Verity nodded and then pointed at the cart. “I’ll come help you free your people after you help me free mine. Hopefully it won’t take 4 million years though. Sound like a solid deal?”

He practically purred at her as he motioned for her to come closer. “Declaration: Proposal accepted. I agree, let’s dig in here and set things right before we leave. And when we do you shall be coming with us to help fight as well.”

Verity nodded eagerly still smiling brightly up at him as she came closer, still a bit wary about his field. There was something else she wanted to ask, he could sense it in the set of her shoulders. He nodded down at her seriously as she came within reach of his arms.

She didn’t meet his eyes as she mumbled. “Can you teach me how to use my field, um, differently than I already know how to use it? I want to be able to do what you did for me after I was shot for you and the cassettes if you ever need it.”

His spark throbbed irregularly in his chest.

This was an easy thing, of course he wanted to show her how to do that. Why was his spark spinning so quickly right now though?

Soundwave nodded and gestured for her to sit in front of him where his legs were crossed on the ground. Verity kneeled and sat on her heels stiffly as she looked up at him with worry. He sent his field out to brush against where hers should have been if it was released and tried to send encouragement and affection sliding down around her. Her eyes widened as she felt it and slowly let her field bleed out from her body.

It was clammy and hard where his was warm and supple. It lapped up against the rigid edges of her field playfully and she shook at little. He pulled it back, not wanting to overwhelm her with the sensation but then she shot her field out towards his and they slammed into each other. Mingling volatilely and flailing violently back and forth as she tried to stop him from retreating and he tried to stop her from panicking. After a flurry of struggling their fields settled and the edges of them merged and overlapped together. He let her feel his joy at her success and then sent her more affectionate encouragement.

Her field fluttered rapidly in a rhythm almost like a sparkbeat. No, he realized, it was her sparkbeat, or rather heartbeat as the humans had muscle pumps in their chests instead of a spark. His intake felt dry all of a sudden.

Soundwave carefully sent a wave of fondness through his field, using the edges of it to warmly caress the limits of her field where it met his. Her ramrod straight posture rippled as if he had stroked her shoulders. Curious, he did it again and this time she shook. That...was her field so sensitive she could feel it like a physical touch? That would explain why she had reacted so violently to his field before. If she felt it against her skin, maybe even under it, that sort of thing might feel like a violation.

He started to withdraw his field, letting his worries bleed into it as he moved it away from hers and this time she cried out loud. “No! Don’t stop that! I’m fine! It’s just, it’s really, fuck. It feels really good okay. Like one of the nicest things I’ve ever felt. Can I? Uh _may_ I try it on you?”

Soundwave’s spark ached for her. He nodded emphatically and let his field flow around and into hers again. “Yes. Yes of course.”

She nodded and bit her lip and then reached out with her field, slowly at first, he let it ripple through his own. She stopped it as it reached his plating, almost touching him. Verity let out a shaky breath and then ran her field down the length of his whole body in one fluid, sensuous motion, almost like a lick. The sensation struck him like a white hot bolt of pleasure directly through every one of his lines.

Soundwave jerked and let out a low moan before he could stop himself. It had been such a long time since anyone had touched him like that with their field. In fact he wasn’t sure if anyone had ever touched him quite like that. The intensity of the hot caressing sensation was unparalleled as her field was so incredibly powerful.

Her face was mortified as she withdrew her field instantly and stammered. “Oh shit! I’m so fucking sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you! I won’t do it again I swear, we should stop right now. _Oh fuck._ ” Verity shouted the last part and he quickly held up his hands to placate her and reached out with his field to try and hug up against her’s comfortingly. He also let his field bleed with a little of his pleasure and she froze.

Soundwave’s voice was steady but laced with static when he spoke. “Fact: That did not hurt, it actually felt exceedingly pleasurable. Fact: I would like you to do it again. That is, if you desire to now that you know.”

Her face went bright red as she realized what he had just said and she stammered. “Oh. Ohhhhhh. Oh wow. I can...shit. Can I? I don’t want to hurt you. It seems like your field is just all reassuring and comforting and warm, I was trying to give you that. Not uh, _that_. But now that I have I can’t stop thinking about it and, uh, maybe wanting to do it again?”

Soundwave nodded hard. “We can work on trying to project tenderness and soothing thoughts later. You...what you just did was something else but no less impressive. Go ahead. Try it again.”

This time he was ready for the sensation so he didn’t moan aloud when her field caressed him hotly again but it was a near thing. Soundwave bit his lip as pleasure sang over his spark and his energon lines. It was like being dipped in a heated oil bath made of desire, his whole frame responded and his cooling fans clicked on instantly.

Verity’s field didn’t pull away on the first stroke this time instead it coiled around him and pushed up under his plating. His circuits fired erratically and static electricity spurted out along his abdominal plating down to his hips. He jerked towards her from where he was seated and this time he did moan and let his field wash over her like a wave.

Soundwave onlined his optics when he heard her shout, he hadn’t realized he had closed them. Verity was bent over now, curled in on herself. He was instantly worried but then she sent back a pulse of heat through her field and wrapped it around him so hard his vision blurred. Their optics met and locked. Verity smiled shakily before squeezing in against his hips harder with her field, jerking it up along his body plating in liquid ripples. Her blazing field caught on all the corners of his tape deck, fondling his shoulder pauldrons, and dipping into the joints there shamelessly. It felt like hundreds of hot liquid hands caressing up into the most intimate parts of his cabling. He didn’t stand a chance.  

Soundwave cried out loudly, his vocalizer shorting out, as he overloaded hard. For the first time in thousands of years, just from being touched by someone’s EM field. Not just someone’s field, Verity’s incredible EM field. No. Just Verity, he thought as his optics came back online to watch her as she threw her own head back, grinding her hips down against the heels of her feet.

When she overloaded it blasted through her field into his, battering against his body like storm surge during a gale, pulling him into another bursting overload he hadn’t been expecting. He collapsed onto the floor on his side and looked at her as she did the same. They were facing each other with the exact same dazed expression on their faces while laying on the ground. He reached out carefully and laid his hand over her body. She arched up into his touch and he gasped as he felt her field playfully scratch down his back.

It was just on the pleasurable side of pain and he shivered. “You are a remarkably fast learner.”

She laughed and it was the same beautiful sound she made before. He let her know he liked the sound of it through their tangled fields and she chuckled again. “Shit Soundwave why the hell didn’t you tell me fields could do _that_? I would have let you teach me how to use mine a lot sooner because fuck. That was seriously amazing. We just uh...we just interfaced right? That’s the right word for alien sex? Ravage wasn’t just messing with me?”

It was Soundwave’s turn to chuckle. “Declaration: Yes we did and it was definitely up to Cybertronian standards. That was, in fact, what we would call a ‘processor blowing frag.’”

She laughed again and pit he wanted to hear her do that all the time. He felt it through her field as she shyly sent back his same wonder and fondness. Verity was indeed an adaptable and quick study.

Her smile became smug as she reached up and stroked his fingers where they were curled over her entire waist. “Well I guess we’ll just have to do it again since it was so delightful the first time. Although not for awhile. I don’t think I can stand, let alone cum again.”

He nodded in agreement and then smiled at her. They laid there for a while, her stroking his hand while it caged her hips in warmly, their fields playfully curling around each other. Her field was still sharp and feral but now it was happy. So was his for that matter.

When they finally separated physically their EM fields still danced around each other. Pulling and overlapping and almost kissing against each other as Verity moved shakily towards the door. “I really need to go home and sleep. As much as I would love to sleep here with you I doubt we’d actually be doing much of it if I stayed. I’ll come back soon though. I need to lay low for about a week after this latest Sunny-V heist but this should last you a while. Hopefully when I come back you can walk enough that I can show you the skyline. As ugly as the corps are they know how to build a beautifully deadly looking city.”

He didn’t want her to leave. They both felt the mutual longing in their fields and he actually sighed when she pulled her field back into herself. Soundwave was going to ask how she made it disappear like that someday. That was a question for another time.

Instead he sent a quick pulse of affection, almost like the electric equivalent of a peck on the lips, towards her as she left and said. “I understand. That doesn’t mean I won’t miss you. Please return soon and uninjured.”

She smiled brilliantly at him and mirrored the little kiss of his field with something fiercer from her own. It shoved against his hard and was laced with pin pricks and possessiveness. It growled _Mine_ up against his plates as she spoke and he visibly shivered. “Right back attacha Big Blue. I don’t want to come back here to find you slagged in a heap. Annnnnndddd I’ll miss you too.”

With a wink and another rough nudge of her field against his she left into the night. Soundwave stared after her stunned as Ravage dropped down from the rafters of the corrugated metal roof.

Because of course he had been there watching the entire time.

Soundwave pinched the bridge of his nose as Ravage spoke. “Hmmm you definitely have a type boss. Terrifyingly powerful insurgency leaders with a vicious streak. I should have seen this coming, or should I say you coming, after I found out she was leading her own little squishy terrorist group. She knew all about deception before we even got here.”

He ex-vented heavily. He didn’t even know what to say to that, so instead he grabbed a container of Sunny-V and took a sip pensively before nearly collapsing back onto the floor. Verity couldn’t return quick enough.

 

* * *

 

 

It was three weeks later when she did finally come back and although he knew it was illogical he had been waiting for her to show him the world outside the warehouse. Both Ravage and Laserbeak had tried to cajole him into leaving and going out with them but he had irrationally refused.

Verity had said she wanted to show him the skyline and he intended to wait for her. The cassettes all passed knowing looks and feelings to each other through the bond and he steadfastly ignored them. He knew what he was doing was silly, he didn’t need them pointing it out, and it wasn’t going to stop him.

Soundwave scrambled to his feet when she came walking in through the door. Her smile widened as she had to crane her neck up to look at him standing. Verity whistled and motioned for him to come to her in the doorway.

She used her cybernetic arm to shove the double doors wide and to the sides so he could follow her out the door. Soundwave went after her out into the night. The warehouse district looked about what he suspected, deserted and run down. Lake St Clair was a sticky matte black that faded into the canal and then the ever blacker darkness of Lake Michigan beyond. It was the skyline that made him jump.

It reminded him so viscerally of pre-war Kaon he almost gasped.

She was avidly watching his face for his reaction and her field was bouncing up against his side and back plating giddily. Someone, probably Ravage, had told her in advance what Detroit would look like to him and how he would feel about seeing it.

Soundwave looked down at her affectionately. “Statement: This really does take me back. Query: I assume Ravage told you that your city looks like my city back before for the war? My planet doesn’t even exist any more, let alone Kaon on it. But seeing these buildings, layered over each other floating on an ocean of decay and corruption, is really quite nostalgic.”

She laughed and he loved to hear it. Loved to hear her. Oh slag.

When had he, when had that happened? He was falling for her, or had already. Frag.

Laserbeak crowed triumphantly over the cassette bond, intimating that Ravage and Buzzsaw now owed her 50 shanix each. They had all been betting not on if he would fall for Verity, but when he would realize he had already. Soundwave just sighed. Maybe he really was just that predictable. A part of him morosely wondered if this particular relationship would end better for him than the last time he had fallen for a revolutionary.

Then he looked back down at Verity as she continued to giggle and he couldn’t have cared less. There was no where else he would have rather been in that moment.

He smiled at her viciously, letting his field take on the edge hers usually had. “It’s been a long time since I’ve stood in a position like this with one such like yourself. But this time around I have four million years of previous experience so I’m confident it will go much smoother.”

She raised a dark eyebrow at him and then let her field rake down his shoulders in satisfaction. “Well when you put it like that you make violent bloody revolution sound like a damn getaway vacation. Unless of course you’re talking about the sex, if which case, I’m not complaining about a couple million years of experience in that either.”

Soundwave practically purred as his engine revved, sending vibrations through the air into their entwined fields. “Compared to herding Decepticon High Command into doing anything remotely productive this whole Earth experience has been rather relaxing. On multiple fronts.”

He laid his hand carefully along the expanse of her entire back and she pushed back into it greedily, her towering EM field flaring deliciously, stabbing into his front and raking down his to hips. She wasn’t looking at him though. Instead gazing at the flickering skyline, its black and purple towers glowing dimly in the smog that roiled in the clouds above them.

Verity’s tooth-filled grin wouldn’t have been out of place on Megatron as she looked at Sumdac System’s massive golden tower jutting up obscenely in the center of the city. “When I started this I was mostly just hoping I wouldn’t get fucked over by my comrades AND the corps. Now I’m definitely not getting fucked over by the corps or any of my people. In fact I’m the one doing the fucking on both fronts. Who could ask for more?” She winked and her vicious grin became absolutely filthy.

Yes, Soundwave had definitely missed this.

A strut deep satisfaction rolled through him and out into their practically writhing fields. What was a few dozen years more, here with her, fighting the good fight? It might serve high command right to go a little hungrier if it meant they would appreciate the feast he eventually delivered straight to them all the more. And frag if Verity wasn’t worth the wait.   

**Author's Note:**

> I love Soundwave so much, he deserves all the nice things. Unfortunately he rarely gets them. Time to write that good porn just for him. Next chapter will have the sex toys and some more world building cause I'm a sucker for that shit and like cyberpunk is made for excessive world building.
> 
> Follow me on Twitter @basilbing for fic chatter, disability praxis, and Transformers retweets.


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